CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
When I was a student of undergraduate Law college, we were never sent for internship by colleges, to be more specific, the traditional university –colleges, whose duty was limited to hold classes, yearly(and not semester) examinations and give us the students the degree certificates. Children of lawyers and judges had a smooth path to the courts and to the practice through their parents. Many of us whose parents were not lawyers, used to hang out with these friends to get reference to join other law-firms or lawyers. We juniors had to do a lot of paper work and physical work to retain our jobs: we had to take notes from our seniors, their clients, make files to put the papers in proper sequences, make noted from the books for helping the seniors for next day’s arguments and sit with the stenographer –cum-computer operator to help him understand our illegible handwritings to make notices, petitions, affidavits etc. Most of the times, these computer operators had their own files saved for specific formats. We had to narrate him/her the names of the parties, the case numbers, and special points that may make the case very different from the format stored in there. 90% of these computers were not connected with internet. They were used for file storing only. I doubt way back in 1999-2001 how many government offices had computers used for anything other than file storing. It was mainly for this that the earlier version of our Information Technology Act,2000 did not have specific provisions damaging computer network system or hacking or unauthorised access to the computer through spreading malware etc. This is evident from the modern version of S.43 of the Information Technology Act (which was amended vide Information technology Amendment Act, 2008), which speaks about penalties and compensations for damage to computer, computer system etc. However, these “file storing” computers were prone to get virus attacks by external devices including floppies. We also did have some few personal computers lawyer’s offices which were connected with internet to receive mails, mainly instructions from overseas clients or clients staying in outstation. But these were considered as “luxury” and these lawyers were considered as that special group of lawyers who were “cyber savvy” not because they could produce electronic evidences because at that time mails/messages/ call logs were hardly recognised as proper evidences even though we had the amendment –wave touching the traditional evidence Act as well; but because they could go back to their chambers and see instant communications/instructions from their clients and were able to bring back some thing called “printed emails” not as an evidence, but as a reference-note. Quite at this time 9/11 happened in the US and everyone including we the lawyers also suddenly became alert about cyber security. But still, we got to see heavily protected lawyer’s bureaus and desks which contained most confidential data about their clients. It was not the soft copies, but the papers and in some cases, some physical objects like the knife or a piece of cloth etc which used to attract our attention as “sensitive” “confidential” materials which may turn the lives of the clients as well as ours if we assist our seniors in protecting these as best evidences. With change of time, almost all lawyers became cyber savvy in this way or that especially because we started storing the confidential data of the clients in soft copies. Now, let us understand what is meant by sensitive information which may be considered as part of confidential data. S.3 of the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 defined sensitive personal data as
(i) password;
(ii) financial information such as Bank account or credit card or debit card or
other payment instrument details ;
(iii) physical, physiological and mental health condition;
(iv) sexual orientation;
(v) medical records and history;
(vi) Biometric information;
(vii) any detail relating to the above clauses as provided to body corporate for
providing service; and
(viii) any of the information received under above clauses by body corporate for
processing, stored or processed under lawful contract or otherwise.
But importantly, this definition also includes a third party, i.e., the “body corporate” for providing services. Now, let us check the definition of body corporates which is defined under S.43A of the Information technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008). It says in explanation (i) "body corporate" means any company and includes a firm, sole proprietorship or other association of individuals engaged in commercial or professional activities. Very broad interpretation of this may include lawyers as well who may provide professional counselling.
But without going into the examination of whether lawyers may held responsible as body corporates in the straight sense, I would like to emphasise on the point that lawyers also collect confidential data and they are at risk of security infringement too. In my recently published writeup “the ransom attack that may make the women cry” published in the WION news @ http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/the-ransom-attack-that-may-make-the-women-cry-15726 I mentioned that every data saver including lawyers may also be at risk for any sort of malware attack. As such, when lawyers store confidential including sensitive data about clients, they must be ethically bound to protect it against any such cyber attack as well.
Now, we may also need to shift our attention to the courts as store house of data as well. Presently, courts have widened options for filing of cases or getting access to the judgements or orders by creating court websites which may not only work as a store house of information for millions of justice seekers, but also an information house of millions of lawyers, law students as well as researchers. Unlike lawyers, who may maintain strict confidentiality about the data /information provided by their clients to them for litigation purposes, we often get to see information being exposed in the court websites, especially in cases of judgements. The recent understanding of the courts have however made it mandatory to keep the party’s name confidential when the case is about child sexual abuse or victimisation of women. But still then, the courts play major role in storing confidential data about the litigants, which if exposed, may make the lives and reputation of justice seekers at stake.
Surprisingly, the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) has not emphasised on this issue separately. The chapters including chapter IX which speaks about penalty, compensation and damage to the computer, computer system, network etc, liability to protect the data penality for failure of the same by the body corporate etc, power to adjudicate etc, and chapter XI which speaks about the offences speaks about liability of the data string houses, individual perpetrators and government stakeholders to intercept etc, but does not specifically mention about categories of service sectors and their liabilities.
While it has been upheld that lawyers will come under the scope of Consumer protection Act unlike doctors or health sector stake holders like the hospitals or clinics, we must understand that by saying this, we can not escape our moral duties to protect the clients or litigant’s vital information which may be stored with lawyers or digital store houses of the courts. Infact as I mentioned in the write-up mentioned above, each of these sectors including lawyers and courts may be attacked by cyber perpetrators who are now playing a crucial role in “hacxtortion : hacking and extortion” (as was coined by me in the above writeup) of money for giving back the encrypted files. We have already seen that National Health services in the United Kingdom had been badly affected by this ransom malware. It is high time that lawyers, law firms and courts must audit their cyber securities to save the valuable data and take preventive steps against such ransom attack.
BEING A VICTIM OF CYBER CRIME COULD BE MOST TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE FOR A WOMAN.WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?HOW DOES IT HAPPEN? WHO DOES IT? WHAT ARE THE PENAL LAWS? HOW TO MAKE USE OF THESE LAWS? THIS BLOG WILL SERVE THE PURPOSE TO SPREAD AWARENESS REGARDING THE ISSUE.PLEASE NOTE THAT EVERY ARTICLE OR COMMENT MADE HEREIN IS COPYRIGHTED AND THEREFORE, REMAINS THE PROPERTY OF ADVOCATE DEBARATI HALDER.
Monday, May 22, 2017
Saturday, April 1, 2017
How ‘yellow journalism’ and internet is failing the women victims of online harassment and revenge porn
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
Almost a month and half back the whole south India woke up
to a rather “juicy news” of “Bhavana” molestation case. She is not “Nirbhaya.” Her
name was not given by the any legislator or judge or executive to protect her
identity. Bhavana is a Malayalam female cine-star whose real name can be found
in Wikipedia and numerous film magazines. She was apparently molested in a
moving car by some including her former drivers. As the news report suggests,
the perpetrators also took ‘objectionable’ photos of her while the incidence
was going on. The news surfaced exactly when I was enjoying the sweet success
of publishing my latest article “Celebrities and cyber crimes:an analysis of
the victimisation of female film stars on internet” published in Temida: Journal
on victimization, human rights and gender Volume 19 • Issue 3-4• 2016 .
We the movie fans often understand that actors or actresses
may themselves attract negative publicity by voluntarily getting into troubles
or playing the victim card. But in some cases this may not be true. Women actors
may face numerous problems, harassment and threats in real life as well as
virtually. One of such problem is facing voyeurism and revenge porn almost on
daily basis. Some actors turn numb to such harassment as they take these as (negative)
part of their work. Some may reach out
to police to show genuine concern. In Bhavana’s case, a minute analysis would
show that she was not only physically violated, but also she became a victim of
‘revenge porn’, a term that our laws still do not recognise and tries to cover
it up by numerous legal provisions which may not provide the actual answer. I call it ‘revenge porn’
because once such ‘objectionable’ pictures were taken; it would not take more
time to get it circulated through WhatsApp. These contents may then
land in various ports including to the secret sellers of porn clippings and obviously
to the XXX rated sites. No one, not even the police may do anything to prevent
secondary victimisation of the victim in such cases.
What concerns me more is publication of her name. S.228-A of the
Indian Penal Code prohibits publishing, printing etc of the name and information of the victim/s
who may have been victim of rape or sexual molestation. This protection is
brought in to protect the privacy of the victim and more so, to encourage women
victims of sexual violence to come up for reporting of crimes without the fear
of ‘recognition’ and resultant possible social exclusion. But this provision
also has a loose noose : when the victim herself allows to publish her name or
identity, this provision will cease to help the victim. We don’t know whether
Bhavana herself permitted the reporters to use her name and photograph but I
can definitely understand that this has again created a bad example of ‘no
identity protection’. Common people who may not be expected to know the pigeon
holes of law, would understand a completely different story: reporting would
bring media highlight which will destroy the physical and mental privacy
of the victim and her family. But this does not mean that I am ignoring the
provisions of S.228-A, IPC. Women victims must also be made aware of this twist
of law relating to identity protection. We may expect good and bad results of
this: the provision may be misused, women may be able to take a rational
decision.
Let us, the civil citizens take a preventive decision to
not to spread any offensive videos/still images of women actors even if it may
surface as apparently (ugly, unethical movie promo) genuine. Let us respect all
women as equal irrespective of their job.
Please
Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2017), " How ‘yellow journalism’ and internet is failing the women
victims of online harassment and revenge porn” 1st April, 2017, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Smart cities may not always be Safe cities: Recalling Bangalore incidence
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
On December 20, 2016 I was attending a round table conference on Smart City, Safe City in Delhi. After the Delhi gang rape case
in 2012, every one addressed Delhi as an unsafe city. New apps emerged which
would help women in distress to send SOS to their relatives and friends and
alert the police. The police force of all metro cities also vowed to ensure
safety for women in public places. Not much success though! There were several incidences
of rape including gang rape which again and again made us realised that there
is a difference between promising and doing. What disturbed me more was sudden
increase of rape videos on internet. Rapists and their aides physically violate
women and capture the moments to enjoy it later! Or should I say to earn
unethical profits out of this? Yes! They earn a good fortune by distributing
such videos to various ‘ports’ from where such videos float to many other
ports, devices and jurisdictions. I would not have believed that local petty
shops earn revenue by selling such videos to young adults and matured teens
until one day I came across a news report on this. Presently it is not only the
violent rape videos or voyeur honeymoon videos alone which is being consumed by
porn addicts; the list has included videos on public place molestation and kissing and fondling of young lovers at dark
places. The Bangalore molestation incident on the 31st December 2016
night is also floating in the internet
now. Indeed, it has been seen not only by those who wanted to know the reality,
but also by porn addicts because this is nothing but a ‘sex video’ or ‘sex
clip’ for many. The images show forcefully touching, fondling and trying to
kiss women.
Question is who clicks these? Who disseminates these? While
I do not deny that many people in the crowd who would have noticed these
incidences may have taken pictures of such molestation because we severely lack
a proper public place photographing law; I must say these molestation videos
have become viral because of the poor surveillance on the work of the
surveillance camera as well. On the one hand we thank the media to bring this
news in the forefront. But on the other hand, I can’t stop thinking about
extreme violation of privacy. What for the surveillance cameras are installed
in public places? It is because the police (the so-called 24 hour help lines)
could be made aware then and there of what is happening and how it is happening
in the public places. Shockingly enough the police took charge after the media
highlighted the issue. What more can be gathered from this is, the person who
may be monitoring the images captured by the surveillance cameras may wanted to
alert the media first and not the police. May be the person in charge would
have alerted both the stakeholders, but the failure of the police to take
charge of the issue first has not only violated
the right of the victims to speedy justice, but has also revealed a crude joke:
privacy of the sexual assault victims
can neither be guaranteed.
28th
January is celebrated as Data Protection day in many countries including India.
On this day 27 years ago Council of Europe opened the Convention for the
protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data
for signature by the State parties. India is yet to adopt this convention.
India neither has any focused Privacy protection law, even though the
provisions relating to protection of privacy are scattered in different
legislation. Ironically the concept of
smart city has motivated the creation if several apps and digital policing. But
the Bangalore incident again proved that nothing really works ‘smartly’ until stricter
implementations of the traditional laws are made.
Stay safe, act safe.
Please
Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use
informations provided in this blog for your own
assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2017),
" Smart cities may not always be Safe cities: Recalling
Bangalore incidence” 29th
january, 2017, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.in/
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Hacking is no fun
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
This December we got to see a bout of hacking attacks on renowned
politicians, journalists, business magnets in India. Apparently their purpose
was to reveal corrupted people who are disrupting good governance in India.
Almost all the news media channels ran stories on who these hackers are, why the
targeting specific people are and what may be their next target etc. Very recently I got to meet a group of people who hack for various reasons.
While most of us are concerned about our own digital data security, it is interesting
to know why our accounts in social media or email may get hacked. There is a difference between unauthorised
access of financial data, social media profiles, emails and digital data that
may be stored in our own devices. They may be interconnected. But definitely
their motives may be different. In my recently published monograph “Cyber crime
against women in India’ (https://in.sagepub.com/en-in/sas/cyber-crimes-against-women-in-india/book253900)
I showed that revenge porn may be a
result of unauthorised access of social media profiles as well as digital
albums for revenge to destroy the reputation. Similarly there are hackers who
may access financial data for illegal
monetary gain.
However, there is a group of people who hack for fun. This ‘voyeuristic
pleasure’ is exercised especially when the hacker/s may want to establish how an
organisation or particular individuals may poorly maintain their cyber security . I do often get to hear from
senior citizens and women that their social media accounts or emails or Whatsapp
profiles have been hacked. An in-depth
research may reveal that hackers may have done this for fun. To me, it relates
to those pre internet days when
youngsters took pleasure in peeping into well guarded private diaries
maintained by young girls and boys or individuals who loved to treasure their
secrets. But hacking is no fun especially when the information thus gathered
can be used for various detrimental causes including extortion and sextortion. Especially
Women may feel extremely traumatised when such hackers for fun target them. The
reason is, if a woman’s digital data is unauthorisedly accessed, it may misused
and damage to her reputation may compel her to take extreme steps like suicide
due to fear of social taboo. What I strongly condemn is teaching school children
about hacking with the tag line that hacking is for fun. It is like giving a
loaded gun to children to experiment it and learn it for fun. It is indeed a
fact that ethical hackers are used for many positive reasons and internet
companies may pay them a hefty amount too. But, teaching hacking to children
must be done with utmost concern. We definitely do not need Frankensteins . It
must be understood that any individual who may not understand the
responsibilities attached with power may definitely misuse the power. We need to understand that our Information Technology
Act, 2000(amended in 2008) has recognised unauthorised access to digital data,
tampering of the data etc as penal offences and the provisions are wide enough
to cover offenders of all age. Further, our Indian Penal Code also recognises
cyber stalking and voyeurism as an offence which may necessarily involve
hacking. Any child psychology expert or educator may understand that children
tend to experiment (often with disastrous first few results) for a better
understanding of the subject. Hacking is such a tool which may at the outset
show the child how to gain illegal profit by using it if he/she is not told
about the risks that may be caused to others as well as to his target victims.
This Christmas let all take a vow that our knowledge must be
used for positive purposes and not for victimising others. We must remember
that if we use our knowledge and expertise to check the weakness of others,
that must be done in a prescribed way and not to humiliate the later.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2016), “Hacking is no fun”
25th December 2016, published in
http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
Friday, September 2, 2016
Why mobile number portability services may prove to be an absolute hypocrisy for women? A dirty dark secret
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
I belong to that generation who have grown up with one
landline telephone connection, just to realise that the same can become ‘just a
set’ to support home internet connection for some, or a “life support” for
senior citizens who love to feel nostalgic by such sets. I have stayed in three major cities in three
parts of India and finally decided to own a telephone number which (much to the
surprise of my older generations) started ‘travelling’ with me to keep me
connected with the world. Yes, we call it ‘roaming’. But the older generation
still loves to call it mobile phone instead of ‘cell phone’ because (as one my
grand-aunt once commented), ‘you need to be mobile while using it’. I gradually
owned a smart phone and the SIM card changed its ‘place of residence’ from my ‘unsmart’ phone to smart phone . I
also witnessed the era when roaming charges got reduced from a (shocking) exorbitant
price to a nominal price which we were happy to afford.
Then came the announcement for mobile
number portability system. One of the
telecommunication service providers define this in the following words “ Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is the
facility for users to switch to any mobile operator in any Licensed Service
Area (LSA) of INDIA, while retaining their existing mobile number . Sim card
and all services on the mobile connection will change and will be provided by
the new operator.”( see http://www.bsnl.in/opencms/bsnl/BSNL/services/mobile/mnp_intro.htm)
And how will the customer avail the services for ‘change of port’? The
telecommunication regulatory authority of India gives a detailed guidelines
regarding this @ http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/file/measuresto%20protectconsumerinterest/Customer_Guide.pdf
.
One of the essential eligibility criteria is owning
government authorised local residential information. This can be either the
voter’s ID card, or the ADHAR card or the PAN card or the Ration Card which may
have the local residential address of the customer. In case the customer has
shifted from his own home, the requirements must be satisfied with the Rent
Agreement, which may show the names of the genuine tenant ( the customer) and
the genuine property owner (the house owner). However, in case the customer has
shifted his jurisdiction from one city to another, he may necessarily need to
show all papers which prove that he has shifted the jurisdiction.
I was fantasising the idea of availing mobile portability system
especially because I shifted from one State to another and I was under the
impression that I can still “own” the number
without paying roaming charges since mobile number portability also
offers for change of geo-location of service area. In short I greedily wanted
to localise my number, which has almost become my identity. I applied for
mobile number portability only to realise a rude shocking truth. It is nothing
but a hypocrisy especially for women who are not ‘single’.
When one enters
a new State he/she can not be expected to
change his/her government authorised identity proofs within one day unless
he/she is a government officer who has been transferred from one post to
another (you may still need to wait for getting your new id card); and if the
person wants to retain the identity proofs because he/she plans to get back to
his/her own home state, then it is only the rent agreement which may support
his/her claim for ‘authentic identity’. Most
of the times, the house owners would prefer to rent out their properties in the
name of the “Karta” (o, common ! forget about the recent judgment which says
even women can also be heads of families. In such situations, Karta always
denotes male heads of families) and not the “Katri”(women heads or spouses) in
case the so called karta wants to be lenient enough to include his wife’s name.
The reason is obvious: our society still can’t accept women as equal to men. As such, if a woman who may or may not be
working (I am excluding women government
servants), and who has travelled with her husband to another State, wishes to avail the ‘digital
magic’ called mobile portability system, she may need to rely upon rent
agreement and needs her husband’s signature (and in some cases the physical
presence as well) for all the formalities, reducing her existence as a mere
presence of the human body without any
identity. Practically, she actually may need to denounce her ‘ownership’ over
the digital identity and phone number that would be allotted to the new
subscriber, i.e., her husband. I really
wonder, then what is the necessity of workplace identity cards, the biometrics
and the (numbness of the) ADHAR number uniqueness if these are not needed for causes such as mobile portability system? Are women
to be considered as fugitive criminals if their existing new workplace identity
cards, unchanged passports or ADHAR cards do not match with the new residential
information ? what may be other unique grounds to deny women the right to avail
mobile portability system when they are otherwise eligible ? It is unfortunate to
note that examples of terrorism or antisocial activities carried on with the
cyber aide had lead to create some policies which do not support the concept of
gender equality always. No matter how much
loving and supporting the husband may be, the rules will always be the rules and the service
provider company would always remain ‘unanswerable’
to the wife or the dependant woman (in case she is the mother or daughter or
sister of the man) even if she is highly qualified professional.
The dirty dark secret behind the glaring concept of mobile portability
system: gender equality and gender empowerment remains an unanswered question as
ever.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2016), “Why mobile number portability services may prove to be an
absolute hypocrisy for women? A dirty
dark secret “published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/ on
02.09.2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
Puberty photography: Are we sexualising our young girls?
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
Menstruation is a phase that every woman has to undergo no
matter whether it gives her pleasant or unpleasant experiences. For most Indian girls who are in periods, the
experience may not be pleasant one. Even though it is actually a biological
purification of reproduction system, socially the girl in puberty may be
considered as un-pure. She may be
treated like a secluded dirty living creature. I would not have believed this
until the day I saw a woman in her 30’s standing in her own portico in a hot
summer afternoon. When asked as why she was standing in the hot sun, her answer
was, ‘I have my periods’. Against such
social taboos, several activists have taken out vigorous campaigns, amongst
which #HappyToBleed is foremost which was created to spread awareness about
menstrual hygiene and also a protest against
restrictions on menstruating women to enter specific temples . While I support such move towards
creation of awareness regarding menstruation, my concern lies with a separate
issue. Some societies in India celebrate the puberty of girls in special ways.
Most mentionable of this is the south Indian culture of celebrating puberty.
Several sociologists may provide explanations as why this particular occasion is
celebrated with such pomp and gaiety.
The common ritual that is followed throughout the day ( a specific day
is fixed after the girl ends her very first 4 days of menstruation), involves
special pujas and showering the girl with
gifts , bathing of the girl with water mixed with herbs, feeding the girl with
nutritious meals including fresh vegetables and fruits, adorning her with new
clothes and ornaments which may symbolise that she is no more a little girl,
but has “attended age” for reproduction, followed by a feast for relatives and
friends. When I was invited for a puberty function for the first time, I was
confused as what to gift; I carefully chose a Whisper packet and wrapped it in
a gift pack, thinking this would be an ideal gift for the girl who has started
her menstrual cycle for the very first time. But later, I was told that the
right gift would be a simple flower “gajra”
for decorating her hair and a box of sweets. Stuffs like a pack of sanitary napkins
or awareness materials including books or CDs on menstrual hygiene are not included
as parts of gifts from women invitees except when the woman concerned is the
girl’s mother or own aunt (but this may be a rare occasion). Strangely
enough, many families pay very less attention to make the girl as well as other
female children aware of menstrual hygiene, even though this occasion could very
well be used for this. Some even call
this as “pre-wedding ceremony” since in earlier times such ceremony would
involve an implied announcement that the girl is ready for marriage. Some
families lavishly spend for these ceremonies. However, notably, while this is a
common cultural practice in south India, celebrating puberty in such a fashion would
not be seen in some other parts of India including eastern India or northern
India. This puberty function is necessarily
accompanied with something called “puberty function photography”. Some families,
who can afford to hire professional photographers, document the whole ceremony.
Several families have also created YouTube videos of these ceremonies.
While this is a completely family affair and may be this could be taken
as a positive note against menstruation taboo, one must also consider the other
side of the coin. Many girls may not like the whole ceremony of publicising
their biological developments. Some may not even like to be photographed as the
“puberty girl”. Some of the girls with
whom I had interacted on this issue, told me that they felt extremely awkward
because they felt that they were being sexually objectified. That is because
the occasion is not a birthday or a wedding reception, but something which is “privately
hers”. What is most embarrassing for
most of these girls is being photographed as a “puberty girl” by young boys who
may be brothers or brother’s friends. These boys who may be in their pre
adolescent age or in adolescence, may not have awareness about puberty. But the
ceremony may only make them understand that the girl is ‘sexually ready’. I
felt really sad when I saw a young girl in the midst of her puberty ceremony
pleading with her brother and cousins to stop objectifying her and shut
the camera off. It was clear: may be the boys were clicking her to make their
own albums of “puberty girl” to be shared later with family and friends, the
girl could definitely understand that she was being marked for her biological,
rather sexual changes and she did not wish to be photographed for that
particular occasion.
Does such photography have really anything
to do with sexually objectifying a young girl? I have two contradictory
opinions: if awareness campaigns like the #HappyToBleed campaign can create positive
awareness about menstruation and can get good response from men, then why not
publicise puberty photography? This can be used to spread awareness about puberty
and reproduction among children in a very child-friendly way. But at the same
time, I must say, our society is still not ready to handle progressive thoughts
about menstruation of women and girls. There are umpteen examples of online
harassment of women and girls by misusing their photographs. Amateur puberty photography
of young girls (especially on occasions of ceremonial bath in their wet clothes)
may attract unwanted attention from harassers who may make unethical use of
such images. The photographs or video
clippings may also attract sexist comments from strangers if the said
photographs or videos are made open for public viewing. In such situations, instead of happy memories
for a special occasion, the images may bring huge trauma to the girl in question. Added with
it, if the parents and family members of the victim are not aware of cyber ethics,
the girl may face great hardships even for socialising with her friends through
digital communication mediums or even for continuing her studies because no one
would like to lodge a police complaint on these images . Even if some one does,
he/she may have to face upheal task to make the concerned police officer (in case he/she is unaware of
the nuances of online victimisation, sexually objectifying remarks and laws regarding
this) understand what makes the offence
and why.
I feel instead of encouraging the children
to have a hand on amateur photography during the puberty ceremony, the families
should consider teaching the children about menstrual hygiene and role of puberty in every one’s life. Then comes
the issue of teaching cyber etiquettes as what should be photographed, how the
girl should be photographed and why it is necessary to take her consent before
clicking her and also before uploading her images as “puberty girl”. If the puberty function is arranged in this
manner, I am sure, children may not only be made aware of reproduction,
menstrual hygiene and sexuality through the unique learning method, they may
also become crusaders against online victimisation of women and girls.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2016), “Puberty
photography: are we sexualising our girls?” 6th June, 2016, published in
http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
Saturday, April 23, 2016
WhatsApp encryptions: Does it really protect women and children from cyber crimes ?
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
Couple of days ago hundreds of WhatsApp user may have come
across a small message with each of the messages that they may have received
from their Whatsapp friends : the message indicated that from now onwards
except the sender and the receiver, no one (not even WhatsApp) would be able to
decrypt any message that is encrypted from end to end. A simple meaning of this
is, when I send a message to one of my friends in WhatsApp, the algorithm key
that I am using to encrypt my message can not be
‘opened’/translated/seen/understood /accessed by anyone other than that
particular friend to whom the message is intended for and sent to. The sender
may understand whether her message has been delivered to the intended recipient
by seeing the double ‘tick’ sign and once they are blue in colour, the sender
may assume that the message has been actually seen and read by the recipient. WhatsApp
in its own version says “WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is available when you
and the people you message use the latest versions of our app. Many messaging
apps only encrypt messages between you and them, but WhatsApp's end-to-end
encryption ensures only you and the person you're communicating with can read
what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. This is because your
messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the
special key needed to unlock and read them. For added protection, every message
you send has its own unique lock and key. All of this happens automatically: no
need to turn on settings or set up special secret chats to secure your
messages.” (https://www.whatsapp.com/security/).
And how would we know whether the message is encrypted or not? Whatsapp says :
“To verify that a chat is end-to-end encrypted
Open the chat.
Tap on the name of the contact or group to open the contact
info/group info screen.
Tap Encryption to view the QR code and 60-digit number.
If you and your contact are physically next to each other,
one of you can scan the other's QR code or visually compare the 60-digit
number. If you scan the QR code, and the code is indeed the same, a green
checkmark will appear. Since they match, you can be sure no one is intercepting
your messages or calls.If the codes do not match, it's likely you're scanning
the code of a different contact, or a different phone number. If your contact
has recently reinstalled WhatsApp, or switched devices, we recommend you
refresh the code by sending them a new message and then scanning the code.” (https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/28030015)
So what does it mean? A secured conversation? Respite from
hackers? No disturbance from unknown persons? By now, internet has been flooded
with write-ups, analysis and discussions on whether the encryption policy of
WhatsApp is good or bad for its subscribers. Some says it was indeed needed
because it would save subscribers from unwanted government surveillances, hackers
and unethical profit makers who see internet as a place for easily available
images which may be ‘sold’ to the porn market. Some opine that this encryption
policy would make it impossible for the police to help the victims of cyber
crimes including women and children. Before
beginning any discussion on this, we must understand about encryption and
decryption policies that is the centre of issues here. Encryption ( which means
converting a data into codes which can not be simply intercepted ) is a
necessary part of every internet/digital communication system and
encryption policies may be framed based on the laws of the hosting
nation (of the web company) and the
company policies which is enabling such services. India does not have any
specific Rules regarding encryption policies under the Information Technology
Act, 2000(amended in 2008), even though S.84A of the Act authorises the
government to implement Rules regarding this. Encryption is not complete
without decryption which is a process of opening such encrypted data. Every
data which is encrypted, must necessarily have the right ‘keys’ to be
decrypted, otherwise the intention behind encrypting a data would have no
meaning. Decryption however is defined by Information Technology (Procedure and
safeguards for interception, monitoring and decryption of information) Rules,
2009 created under S.69 of the
Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008). It needs to be noted that
decryption policies are also generally guided by the laws of the hosting
country. But at the same time, each web company must necessarily abide by the
laws of the place of ‘business’ as well. This means that even if a web company
has its own policies regarding encryption to provide extra security to its
subscribers, it must abide by the laws of the land of the subscribers to enable
the government for legitimate surveillance and also for tackling online crimes. We now know that
WhatsApp is now the most chosen medium to generate messages or spread messages
/text/images (including those which are ‘illegal’). Often in cases of
civil/political unrest, one may note that the police administration may suggest
for complete blockage of messaging services like WhatsApp. This again falls
under S.69A of the information Technology Act,2000(amended in 2008) which
authorises the government to issue direction for blocking for public access of
any information through any computer resource.
But when it comes to crimes against women and children, I
see no positive development even after creating such extra layer of security. There are instances of approaching women in
their private whatsapp numbers for harassing them, accessing private
photographs (already available in other social media and circulating them
either ‘as it is’ or the morphed version of the same, threatening and
blackmailing women with such images etc. What is more disturbing is, even after
the encryption policies are rolled out by WhatsApp, no attempt has been taken
to initiate a proper reporting mechanism. In the recently held UNICEF India
meeting on expert consultation of online child safety, I had expressed my
concern in this regard as well. At the most what an offended subscriber can do,
is to block the harassing ‘number’ and leave a group if he/she is added to it
without his/her consent. The harassing WhatsApp profile may still stay at large
with the private images and information of the victim to upload them in other
social media including YouTube or adult sites. Similarly, if not blocked, the
harassing profile may continue to send bullying, derogatory, demeaning,
insulting messages to the victim ‘uninterruptedly’. So what is the use of
encryption policy then? It actually provides a half baked solution, i.e,
protection against hacking. It may probably encourage more sexting because such
images and messages may stay comfortably and permanently with the sender and
the recipient only. But again, if there is a case of jilted love affair, no
one, not even WhatsApp encryption policies may prevent possible creation of
revenge porn materials on the same platform and also on the web. But here one
must not be misguided by the fact that in such cases, the police would not be
able to help nab the criminal due to encryption policies of WhatsApp. In such
situations again, the law takes the same course of action as is the case for
any other social media crimes against women, with off course limitations when
the harasser is situated outside the jurisdiction of India, even though
Information technology Act has extra jurisdictional scopes as well.
It is however
unfortunate to note that unlike several EU countries and Canada, our courts and
government are unable to take strong actions against the web companies who are
not complying with the local laws in matters of assisting the governments and
criminal justice machineries to nab the criminal or in the investigation. There
are lots of techno-legal issues which
needs to be settled to achieve this in India, which includes proper training to
the police, the lawyers and the judges. We have highest number of subscribers
for WhatsApp, but awareness regarding safety issues is almost nil. Unless
subscribers are made aware of the positive and negative sides of the technology
that they are using, no policy, including this encryption policy may help
reducing crimes online.
Let us spread awareness rather than defamatory ‘viral news’. Lets join hands to stop cyber crimes against
women.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2016),
“WhatsApp encryptions: does
it really protect women and children from cyber crimes?”24th
April, 2016, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
Friday, March 11, 2016
Risky private talks: what women must be aware of
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
Gone are the days when young women preferred to secretly seek
information from friends, cousins or aunties residing in neighbouring houses about
periods, sexual behaviour of men on nuptial nights or about pregnancy and
related issues. Hush hush talks about delayed periods, sex etc
slowly shifted to digital communication mediums and gradually women are
now talking about these issues openly, breaking gender based myths that periods make women ‘untouchable’ or
delayed periods may signify obvious pregnancy. This would not have been
possible without the social media as a positive platform for letting women
express their feelings and seek information from various groups , pages,
websites etc. This is the main reason that social media is also called
infotainment as well, which signifies information-entertainment. While this is
the worldwide trend now, in India women are still gathering courage to speak
about these issues openly on social media platforms. For many women, it is still a matter to be
shared either by phone calls or by way of Facebook, Yahoo, Gmail chat
messengers, or by way of WhatsApp, Vibe, WeChat etc. Often women may not only seek to gain information
on these information by sharing ‘private secrets’, they may also like to know
about fellow women’s sexual relationship with their husbands or boyfriends. There
was this report by Porno-Hub which showed that women in India are no less porno
viewers compared to their male counter parts (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160103/jsp/7days/story_61762.jsp#.Voj9msLUnQ0.facebook).
Women, like men are inquisitive to know about the sexual behavior of other
couples and truely speaking, there is no wrong is sharing such secrets.
But wait!
There are risks involved in sharing sex-secrets with other
women even in closed groups. The language
used by women inquisitive to know about sexual behaviour of friends may not always be comfortable for others; such
communications are supposed to be ‘not serious’ and women may tend to use ‘sex
jokes’ which are supposed to be exclusively meant for men. But do remember,
women have equal right to expression: then where is the problem? Many a times, women friends may pester each
other to share private photos on WhatsApp or similar mobile messaging platforms.
These are not typical sexting, but clearly photos in a compromising position
with the male partners , or simple photos of embracing or hugging each other on
bed . While the earlier may be extremely risky since it may attract legal
liabilities of creating sexually explicit images and distributing the same (if
not kept in the owner’s own possession for private viewing), the later may look
perfectly safe to create and distribute. But when seen from the perspective of
online safety of women, distribution of both sorts of images may be risky. This
is because, the recipient of the message asking to share the photographs, may
never know whether the message was generated by the friend whom she knew since
her childhood or she is truly her best friend. The sender may be the adolescent
child of the friend who helps the ‘cyber illiterate mom’ to send messages, may
be her husband who wishes to monitor her and her friends or may be any other
stranger who may have gained illegal access to the phone either physically or
digitally. The caution note for sharing sex-secrets by plain texting is also
similar. The information that is sent out may be misused if the same is shared
with public by others who may want to harass or blackmail the sender of the
information. It takes a few seconds to text a sex joke or share the ‘bed
secrets’ with friends, but may take huge time to remove the unwanted
information from public viewing and manage reputation damage. Women who may
pester their friends to get indulged in such secret talks through digital
communication platforms may not be fully aware of safety risks. It is therefore
better to be aware than to be ‘less serious’ and ‘popular’ only to attract more
danger for oneself and her friends. Let us keep our secrets to ourselves and
let us enjoy real life socialising for the sake of online safety of us, the
women.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2016), “Risky private talks: what women must be aware of”
11th March, 2016, published in
http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
Sunday, February 7, 2016
The irresistible misogynist trolls in the social media
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
With another new year, I enter the 9th year as a
blogger. In these 9 years I got to see emergence of different sorts of crimes against women on
the cyber space. While in India the most bothersome type of victimisation
targeting women is definitely creating fake avatars in the social media or in
the adult networking websites, one can understand that emergence of irresistible
misogynist trolls in the social media also claims attention of every one now. Way
back in 2013 in my article “Examining the scope of Indecent representation of
Women (Prevention) Act, 1986, in the light of Cyber Victimization of Women in
India”, published in National Law School Journal, 11, 188-218, I researched
about fake avatars and trolls. These topics later found vital places in my Ph.D
dissertation thesis only to remind me that these issues will never die until the
victim lets them die a natural death either by ignoring them or by reporting
the matter to the concerned authorities.
Trolls find a
unique place in social media especially in India because they are not ‘recognised’
by any laws in India as specific ‘offenders’. They feel ‘overpowered’ because
of this to express their opinions in several threads, blog posts, media news
clippings etc. However, they stand apart from other individuals who express
their opinions because of their language in which they communicate: it is
impolite, arrogant, hateful and often misogynist. There are different types of
trolls who communicate their expression in such way. These may include
workplace place trolls, information seeking trolls, lime-light seeking trolls, fan-club
trolls, educational institute trolls, activist trolls racist trolls, political
trolls, State sponsored trolls and also misogynist trolls in particular. The list
may include many other types of trolls existing in social media and on internet
in general. Misogynist trolls take to internet and social media to disrupt
discussion about women, which may include discussions about welfare measures as
well. One such example is this continuous publication of troll posts, which
appeared in the official Facebook page of ministry of women and child
development (MWCD) when the concerned minister Ms.Maneka Gandhi, announced for
several welfare measures for women including the publication of Handbook on
sexual harassment of women at workplace. While many stakeholders expressed their
opinions in these threads in Facebook, misogynist trolls found their own way to
entertain themselves by insulting others, especially women. Among these, one
troll post which repeatedly targeted women, expressed anger on the issue of
safety of women in the workplace, other expressed anger for the issue of
special treatment of women . The bone of the contention was, if women can not
endure workplace politics and back biting, which is often seen as ‘workplace
harassment’ by researchers and activists, then it is best for women to stay at
home and cook for their husbands. Some
women protested the troll posts. Some chose to ignore. But these troll posts
started growing in number because no one actually banned them , but may have
chose to block them personally. I noticed one such troll post and reported the
matter to the Facebook as well as the Facebook page of MWCD. Fortunately my report was accepted with a
positive note from Facebook which removed the misogynist troll posts. But this
may be a temporary arrangement for no one was booked for any ‘offence’ and as
such, the opinions thus expressed in the FB page of MWCD may not actually invite any penal sanctions because
they are not targeting any particular individual, but women as a whole. Resultant,
the troll posts are back in the same FB page in different forms, showcasing
hatred towards women in different forms. Their omnipotent presence is felt
everywhere even in Twitter or Google hangout and they are becoming more
powerful understanding that using hateful words targeting women may make them
more (in)famous to gain easy lime light.
While S.66A
of the Information Technology Act was in use, many people had used it as well
as misused it. But hardly any one, including the police could properly use it
for preventing such misogynist trolls or opinions. I being an ardent fan of
positive use of S.66A argued for using it to prevent such misogynist opinions, racists’
comments, personal defamatory remarks etc on many occasions. Unfortunately in many occasions, either victims were not
ready to take the matter to the court and press for a good experiment of this
law, or the police showed complete apathy to such issues, which they felt were
trivial. Many activists suggested that trolls and bullies may be regulated
under different provisions, and S.66A should not be made alive because of this.
But I opine differently. In my recent article “A Retrospective Analysis Of
Section 66 A:Could Section 66 A Of The Information Technology Act Be
Reconsidered For Regulating “Bad Talk” In The Internet?” Published in Indian
Student Law Review (ISLR), 2015(1), pp 98-128, I documented my opinions in this
regard. But as I researched in this particular article, if misogynist trolls
can not be regulated because their posts may not give rise to threat to any particular
woman ( as it had happened in the case of Elonis decision), it does not mean
that they can grow with no fear of checks and balances. The moment troll posts
step into defamatory posts, the victim can and should consider taking the troll
to the proper authorities.
But here
again lies the problem of understanding: if the troll posts affect a more ‘powerful
victim,’ say for example, a corporate house for any particular product of them,
or a particular group of people, they may decide to take action against troll
collectively. But if it is an individual victim, the apathy of the social media
as well as the police may make the trolls more powerful. When social media does not take any heed to
the plea of the victim to prevent the troll from his activities, the troll may
start posting more vigorously with a twisted message as how he remains
literally ‘uncontrollable’. It is nothing but provocation to the victim to
counter response so that the troll can counter attack. Unless the police take a serious note by not
considering this as trivial, the trolls may continue attacking their victims
unless they get bored. It is expected that the concerned authorities,
especially the MWCD may take note of the situation and implements regulatory
provisions to control such disruptive activities in the name of free speech.
Please Note: Do not violate
copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this
blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as
“Halder D. (2016), “The irresistible misogynist trolls in the
social media”
8th February, 2016, published in
http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
Thursday, November 26, 2015
How we were able to remove Facebook groups victimising women through creating "Fake Avatars": A success story
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
While 25th November is celebrated as
international day for Elimination of all forms of discrimination of women, I
got to see the internet being flooded with “orange the world” messages. This is
the particular term taken up by the United Nations to spread awareness about
elimination of violence against women and inspired by UN, many stakeholders use
#Orangetheworld to express their concern, share experiences and vows to fight against
all forms of violence against women. I follow the rest here. I have never opted
for any particular app to show my solidarity with any cause including that of
Nirbhaya rape case when many men and women opted for showing black spot in
their profile picture, judgements on 3rd gender case which motivated
many to opt for rainbow coloured profile or even the recent Paris attack when
many opted for French flag colour. This year, when the UN first started their #orangetheworld
campaign, the social media spread the colour. I changed both my Facebook and
Twitter profiles to stand as one of the millions of ambassadors of the
campaign. But did the Convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against
women, which advocates to stop violence against women, really prove beneficial
to women especially for online violence cases? We need to consider the issue
again and again.
Couple of days ago a responsible citizen contacted me
showing some Facebook links. These were of groups where adult women’s photos
were randomly selected, posted and they were made to be “fake avatars” by
adding extremely vulgar, indecent sexually explicit comments. These women were
picked up mainly because they looked beautiful and had attractive physical structures
which were enough to motivate these perverts. Some photos indicated that they
may have been parts of promotional photos of television serials or modelling contracts;
some were taken from beauty pageants as well. I was not contacted by any women
or any of these victims or any women’s group. The person who alerted me was a man and I salute
him. When he came across these groups, he tried to report the groups, the images
and the posts attached to the images which actually made these photographs typical
fake avatars, rather sex-items. Facebook did not take any action. The main
reason for this was, these victims were not children and Facebook did not
recognise these posts as offensive. Here I must recall my meeting with child
right activists, women’s right activists and transgender right activists at the
meeting on Porn Panic Ban conference organised by Point of View and Internet
Democracy last month at Delhi. I was
invited to speak about indecent representation of women on internet and I
shared information about my work. I used this opportunity to learn about other’s
experiences as well. I got to know more
details about the recent sensational case of Manikanta Prabhu, who was arrested
for creating Facebook group with images of children and posting violent,
sexually explicit messages about these children. This case and the case that I recently
dealt with, are quite similar with only one difference: in my case, the victims
are adults and in the other, victims were children. The noted child right
activist who was incidental in moving the courts and making the accused get
arrested in the later case, told me that Facebook refused to recognise the
harmful language that were being posted targeting these children because these
were mostly in vernacular language. The activist had rightly approached the
court against such action of the Facebook.
While dealing with the case relating to adult women, I took note of the experience
shared by the activist and mobilised support to report these groups as Facebook
may respond to larger volume of reports. However, our collective attempt remained unsuccessful.
It was only later that Facebook officials
responded to my reports and mails and made me understand how to report such
indecent representation. While from my side, such groups and posts were reported as 'harassing', seeing the images and the language of the posts, the
post reporters who came up to support me, reported the same to Facebook as ‘nudity’.
But ‘Nudity’ may have a completely different meaning as per Facebook ‘offence
vocabulary’. Here lies the difference between Indian understanding of the term
nudity and digital technological as well as western understanding of the term
nudity. As such, the volume of the report grew basing on reports on 'nudity' and not 'harassment'. As the officer from Facebook had told, these posts which present
indecency in their overall presentation must be reported as ‘harassing’. I feel extremely happy to say that finally
these groups as well as the offending comments were restricted and were taken
off by Facebook. This would not have happened unless Facebook considered my
reports and again, renewed reports. This should be therefore noted that while
Facebook or any other social media may not respond to reports positively, we
need to understand the offence- related perspectives of the social media as
well. However, it is an obvious fact that social media including Facebook and
Twitter need to improve their own understandings and policies in such issues. When we speak of ending violence against women
in all forms, we need to understand that all stakeholders must act together to
bring out a fruitful result. I am
anticipating that such groups may resurface on Facebook again because Facebook
or any social media in that case, does not and cannot bar any individual from
coming back to create another new identity with yet another set of false
information.
Let us be prepared to fight such online
harassment against women in a positive way.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2015), “How we were able to
remove Facebook groups victimising women through creating fake avatars: A success
story
”, 26-11-2015, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
Friday, November 6, 2015
Porn panic: how festive-dressing styles become responsible
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
Come autumn and it is the festive season every where in
India. Daily soaps are regularly
interrupted by new advertisements about every usable stuff and the fashion
magazines get flooded by what a teenager
should wear, how a woman should carry her saree or in what attire a man should
look most ‘desirable’ to women. Nonetheless, each of the States in India have
their own dressing style, but when it comes to metro style and casuals,
especially for festivals, girls and boys, men and women never disappoint style
makers of Bollywood and the Mumbai serials. This Durga puja was a special one
for me as I got to see Kolkata in Durga Puja after a long time. The city has
not changed its traditions, but digital habits of people have. Visitors to puja
pandals , especially young adults visit the pandals not for seeing the
different themes or idols, but for taking selfies with “Durga and her
children”. Too many flashes, ‘click’
sounds of camera phones do make a
disturbance for those who want to enjoy the Puja in its real meaning. With the
changing of the time, these were bound to happen. But what worries me is the
gross violation of privacy while clicking selfies, doulfies (couple-selfie) or
even clicking of the general Puja
pandals. In earlier days,
capturing images in the Puja pandals was treated as ‘eve teasing’ if someone
intentionally clicked images of girls and women by continuously disturbing them, making them to look at the
photographer without getting their
permission and against their will (to be photographed). Even though this had
proved to be dangerous for many girls and women, their harassment would not
have been as ‘large scale’ as it may be now. It is because not only the girls
and women can be clicked anywhere, in any position, their images can travel to
many persons, many unwanted sites and to many unwanted persons within minutes.
The hard truth is, even the selfie taker girls and women may also be victimised
if their selfies land in unwanted places on internet.
In
this connection, I must mention about the conference on Porn, Panic, Ban held
at Delhi on 28th and 29th October, organised jointly by
Point of View and Internet Democracy project. I was invited as a resource
person and speaker to speak on indecent representation of women on internet. My
lecture was largely based on my article titled “Examining the scope of IndecentRepresentation of Women (prevention) Act in the light of cyber victimization inIndia”. In this conference, I and other speakers raised our concern regarding
voyeurism. Precisely, in any public festival, women and girls may be the chosen
targets for such voyeurs who have mania for clicking women and girls from odd
angels. These images are either uploaded in the social networking sites for
personal sexual gratification, creation of ‘sex-groups’, or even revenge porn. We do know how a couple of months back, the images of children
clicked and uploaded on Facebook had created a vicious network of people who
turned these young children into ‘sex-items’ for them on Facebook . The
photographs of these children were also clicked in public places. Saying this I
want to emphasise on the fact that everyone, especially women and girls in the
present age must be cautious about their safety not only in the physical world,
but also on internet. In my previous
article titled “Online Victimization of Andaman Jarawa Tribal Women: AnAnalysis of the ‘Human Safari’ YouTube Videos (2012) and its Effects.” Which
was published in British Journal of Criminology in 2014, I had shown how
absence of proper laws prohibiting photography in public places enhance the
possibilities of online victimisation of women more. Same opinion goes for
young girls and boys as well.
The festival dressing styles for women and
girls not only encourage the fashion makers to decide for the next style
statements, but also encourage the perpetrators to get armed with cell phone
cameras to ‘capture’ their prey for their own corrupted minds. It may be impossible to think about
curtailing private rights to capture images at Puja pandals or any festival
gatherings, but this becomes a necessary need for saving women from being
indecently represented on internet. Along with that, I agree with some
concerned police officers who are of the view that neither men nor women or
children should opt for those attire, which not only make themselves feel
uncomfortable, but also may make them victims of unwanted harassment. Plainly
speaking, public places ( except where it is designated to be a bathing place),
should not be considered as platforms to experiment attires or style statements
which may attract unwanted harassment. It needs to be understood that while one
may dress according to one’s own choice, one can not expect everyone to have
same views about him/her in his/her chosen attire. While its true that perpetrators and perverts may target women and girls and even men in any attire, but still then, in my own experience I have seen that perverts do target specific people, who in their view is the 'sexiest'. True, its their problem and not ours.
Let me explain this with an example from my own childhood. At a wedding we got to see a famous movie star who came in attire which was the latest fashion statement at the early 90’s. He wore a see-through shirt. While he ( note that this particular person is a man and not a woman) managed to attract the attention of every young people who loved watching him on screen, there were people who were not exposed to such see through garments in real life. The popular actor did also managed to hear one such person shouting at others ‘look the man is wearing plastic sheet to show off his hairy chest and plump midriff’ . It was truly a hilarious moment for many of us youngsters who were ‘forced’ to look at the actor once again and scrutinise his body structure. But remember, the late 80’s and early 90’s did not have cell phone cameras and smart phones and hence his picture in his latest style did not become viral in the other way with the odd comment ‘pasted’ to his picture. But this can happen now. Nonetheless, if this happens to anyone now, only the true victims would know what the pain would be like. Social media would not take down such fake avatar with nasty comments if the victim is an adult, because such posts would obviously carry the question of First Amendment rights versus right against being victimised by indecent representation; clouds may take such images and the comments to numerous unwanted sites and it would become literally impossible for the victim to remove image of hers in her own favourite attire which may have become ‘hot favourite’ for others for sexual gratification. For this women and girls need to be more aware. No, my concern is not for making women and girls feel that they should not opt for uncomfortable dresses in the name of fashion only; my concern is for women team among the organisers. Stand up for protesting any violation of rights of women and girls and this could be done when women members in the Puja organising committees or volunteers from civil society members take active steps for spreading the awareness against voyeuristic activities.
With Kali Puja and Diwali approaching, the government, the police and also the puja organisers and civil society at large must decide to take such steps which may create awareness among people to prevent such sorts of victimisation of people.
Let me explain this with an example from my own childhood. At a wedding we got to see a famous movie star who came in attire which was the latest fashion statement at the early 90’s. He wore a see-through shirt. While he ( note that this particular person is a man and not a woman) managed to attract the attention of every young people who loved watching him on screen, there were people who were not exposed to such see through garments in real life. The popular actor did also managed to hear one such person shouting at others ‘look the man is wearing plastic sheet to show off his hairy chest and plump midriff’ . It was truly a hilarious moment for many of us youngsters who were ‘forced’ to look at the actor once again and scrutinise his body structure. But remember, the late 80’s and early 90’s did not have cell phone cameras and smart phones and hence his picture in his latest style did not become viral in the other way with the odd comment ‘pasted’ to his picture. But this can happen now. Nonetheless, if this happens to anyone now, only the true victims would know what the pain would be like. Social media would not take down such fake avatar with nasty comments if the victim is an adult, because such posts would obviously carry the question of First Amendment rights versus right against being victimised by indecent representation; clouds may take such images and the comments to numerous unwanted sites and it would become literally impossible for the victim to remove image of hers in her own favourite attire which may have become ‘hot favourite’ for others for sexual gratification. For this women and girls need to be more aware. No, my concern is not for making women and girls feel that they should not opt for uncomfortable dresses in the name of fashion only; my concern is for women team among the organisers. Stand up for protesting any violation of rights of women and girls and this could be done when women members in the Puja organising committees or volunteers from civil society members take active steps for spreading the awareness against voyeuristic activities.
With Kali Puja and Diwali approaching, the government, the police and also the puja organisers and civil society at large must decide to take such steps which may create awareness among people to prevent such sorts of victimisation of people.
- Children, do not click unwanted photos of others, because this may violate other’s privacy.
- Young adults, restrain from using your cellphone cameras as ‘spy-cam’, because if you are capturing somebody secretly, remember, you are not only violating other’s rights, but some one may also do the same to you and you may have to face legal actions and harassments as well.
- Especially to girls and women: beware while taking selfies and storing it in the clouds or sharing it with others. You may never know how your favourite selfie can become an item for adult sites and an indecent representation of yourself.
Wish you all a very happy and safe Diwali.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2015), “Porn panic: how festive- dressin styles become
responsible”, 06-11-2015, published in
http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Cyber misogyny of female journalists
CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
When the image of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian boy who was found
lying dead on a sea shore in Turkey surfaced on internet, social media
including Twitter were flooded with posts expressing concerns for war refugees. One of the worst causes of destruction of
human civilisation is definitely the war. When as a young student I used to
read about World Wars, I used to believe that wars are parts of history and
this would never occur in modern age. But my childish thoughts were smashed
with growing up years when I learnt that wars in different forms still exist
and they are more devastating than before.
The television channels used to show live broadcasting of soldiers preparing
for counter attack in borders and like many other young women I often used to
think that such reporting are done by men. But I was proved wrong. Be it Barkha Dutt’s reporting on Kargil war between
India and Pakistan or her coverage of
2008 Taaj attack in Mumbai , like many other girls, we knew Barkha as a
reporter meant to cover risky areas. Remember Maya Mirchandani , the reporter
who was one of the last to cover Sri Lankar President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s
campaign rally when the Kumaratunga was hurt due to bomb explosion ? Following
female journalists like Barkha or Maya, many female journalists came up to take
this venture of reporting war crimes, political hooliganism, scams etc
literally risking their lives. Among
these brave women brigade, I have my own cousins who have also suffered
physical injuries in the course of their duties.
But with the advent of digital communication
technology, attacks on women journalists have become more organised, personal
and also patterned. Sagarika Ghosh, one
of the senior most women journalists in India was one of the worst victims of
Twitter trolls. In my BBC interview (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-22378366)
regarding attacks on women on social media I expressed my anguish over the issue
of lack of empathy and sympathy from the part of criminal justice machinery to
the female victims, especially in case of trolling or bullying, even if they
are celebrities . Undoubtedly, this is a major cause which motivates the perpetrators
to abuse such women. In my recent
publication titled “A retrospective analysis of S.66A: Could S.66A of the
Information Technology Act be reconsidered for regulating “bad talk” in the
internet?” Published in Indian Student Law Review (ISLR), 2015(1), pp 98-128, I
took up Sagarika’s case as a prime
example as how women may be victimised online irrespective of their position in the society.
They may also be targeted by misogynist posts including online sexual abuse. The reasons may vary from professional
jealousy from own colleagues, workplace harassment to even dislike by members
of particular group or organisation, who may motivate supporters to individually
attack the women concerned online. The very
recent case of the Delhi Journalist Swati Chaturvedi, who became a victim of sexist trolling allegedly by another senior
journalist may be seen as a good example
in this case( http://indiasamvad.co.in/6524/showstory/Beware-of-sexist-remarks-Delhi-journo-to-become-first-to-be-arrested-for-Twitter-trolling).
But it would be wrong to presume that
such atrocities happen only in India. Consider
the case of Sharmila Seyyid, a SriLanka based war crime reporter; because of
her work, she was attacked online and once Twitter and other social media were
also used to spread the news of her death and the morphed picture which showed
her raped. She was very much alive but these tricks were taken up to send her
death threats and make her family feel extremely insecure about her life (See http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/sharmila-seyyid-online-trolling-death-threats/article7109863.ece).
But she is not the only one Sri Lankan female reporter to be victimised online.
Another Sri Lankan war crime reporter named Dilshy Banu, who is also the writer
of four books, was also attacked online. Dilshy, unlike other women was not
trolled in the social media. But whenever anyone searches her name with the key
words of her name, the search engine gets flooded with web links of
pornographic sites which has her name with a slight change in the spelling. Dilshy
contacted me for help and permitted me to use her case study. It is unfortunate that similar to many other
women journalists, Dilshy’s name has been added to vicious misogynist posts on
internet and these web links may stay for a long time like those ugly posts targeting
other women journalists, which are still floating in some sites, unless search
engines themselves pull down those web links. on a positive side,the number of such links showing porn contents which are tagged with Dilshy's name are reducing. But the process is slow. But as may be seen, such act of
pulling down of misogynist posts needs the cooperation not only from the NGOs,
but also from the criminal justice machinery where the victim should report the
crime for getting a legal recognition of the offence, the search engines as the
intermediaries and of course the general public who may help these brave women
by ‘positive Google bombing’. It is
understandable that like India, many other south Asian countries including Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan etc may not have well developed laws to prevent
cyber misogyny targeting women; and even if they do, the foreign based
intermediaries may need to work more cooperatively to help prevent such sorts
of victimisation since the viral nature of the offensive posts may make the individual stake holders almost
impossible to erase them completely. It is
unfortunate to note that this may be one of the reasons that more orthodox
countries including Iran etc, periodically block many websites including Google
or may even create prohibitory sanctions for using internet.
It is understandable that all of us have
freedom of speech and expression and as I mentioned in my article on S.66A, the
courts, not only in India, but all over the world, are slowly expanding the
scope of free speech guarantee. The latest
example is obviously the Elonis decision in the US on which I wrote my blog @ http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.in/2015/06/the-elonis-decision-why-would-indian.html
. But that does not mean that people can take internet or digital communication
technology to continue attack on women, including journalists.
Let us join hands to stop online
victimisation of women irrespective of jurisdiction.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2015), “Cyber misogyny of female journalists”, 9th September, 2015, published in
http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
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